This weekend: It's Hammerween time

"We just wanted to make a record and play some shows around town," said Hammerlord lead vocalist Stevie Cruz (right), with bassist Terry Taylor. Hammerlord calls itself a punk/metal/thrash band, and it plays high-speed, rip-roaring rock songs titled accordingly: “Storm the Castle,” “Tombstone Piledriver” and “Demon Fever.” But the motivation behind the founding of the band was warm and simple

"We just wanted to make a record and play some shows around town," said Hammerlord lead vocalist Stevie Cruz (right), with bassist Terry Taylor. Hammerlord calls itself a punk/metal/thrash band, and it plays high-speed, rip-roaring rock songs titled accordingly: “Storm the Castle,” “Tombstone Piledriver” and “Demon Fever.” But the motivation behind the founding of the band was warm and simple. Friendship and fun. “We started doing it for purely selfish reasons,” said Stevie Cruz, the band’s lead singer. “We just wanted to make a (great) heavy-metal record, for fun. But the more we got into it, we realized it was...